Invisible Voices

‘Thrillingly unique and meticulously researched, Glynn provides an urgent re-imagination of criminology as we know it.’

David Lammy, MP

‘Glynn makes an impassioned plea to locate the historical within the contemporary and black presence within the absence. The collation of historical sources invite the reader to envision an illuminating black historical criminological imagination that offers an important disciplinary contribution.’

Professor Coretta Phillips, London School of Economics and Political Science

‘Black people’s presence in the history of criminal justice in the UK suffers from a fate even worse than the "enormouscondescension of posterity" that E. P. Thompson says was imposed on the English working class. With this book Glynn supplies a corrective as he rescues black "activists, advocates, revolutionaries, writers and artists"from the oblivion of white erasure. Out of the archives rise the voices of black people from the 17th, 18th, and 19th century. Court transcripts, crime registers, slave trades, and other sources provide a presence that Glynn fashions into an important narrative. It is a narrative against condescension and oppression that points to a richer future for criminology.’

Rod Earle, Senior Lecturer in Youth Justice, The Open University

'Glynn argues that the discipline of criminology cannot continue to be shaped by "academic neutrality" which often involves omitting the historical experiences of Black people. Glynn shares real accounts of the brutalisation and dehumanisation that slaves were subjected to. He provides an evidence-based backdrop to the powerful points he makes about the ties of slavery to present-day systemic racism. Glynn also shares evidence of an ex-slave providing testimony in court; perhaps you were - as Glynn was - unaware that ex-slaves were permitted to testify in court. In sharing this account, Glynn highlights that the version of the history of the UK’s justice system most commonly cited is limited and excludes historic and significant Black voices. We often learn of White trailblazers or ‘elite’ Black figures active in the abolitionist movement but seem to have collective amnesia when it comes to Black activists, writers, speakers, potent forces for social progress for centuries. Glynn argues that unless we admit - academically and in society at large - that "the historical other’" continue to be reproduced in modern systems of oppression, "a continuing legacy of racialized dominance" will be perpetuated.'

Mia Edwards, Policy and Communications Officer, Alliance for Youth Justice